Moving in God
July 3, 2026
Genesis 12:1
1 Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
Psalms 119:105
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
This blog will be a little longer than typical, and is dedicated to our nephew Daniel, who is moving his family from New York to Tennessee to plant a new church. I’ve had a little experience moving across country, so here is some of our family history on moving and the guidance of God in directing our paths.
My first move was from Illinois to Pittsburgh. I had just gotten saved and baptized, graduated from college and married my childhood sweetheart. I prayed about where to go to graduate school, but really didn’t have a clue about walking with the Lord yet. Still, the Lord was gracious to me and guided my steps to move to Pittsburgh.
I arrived in Pittsburgh jus as the charismatic movement broke out at Duquesne University. I got involved in several campus Bible study groups and soon experiences the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This was an exciting time with tremendous excitement and large gatherings such as the Pittsburgh Charismatic Conferences, Explo “72, Jesus “74 and Jesus “76. There was also a lot of turmoil in my life as my ill fated marriage broke up and I had to leave leave CMU before I qualified for my PhD. But the Lord was gracious and I met Pastor Joseph Garlington who helped me greatly. I joined his church and was able to participate in a unique experience of combining three existing congregations into one new charismatic one. Melding an urban pentecostal church with two suburban mainline churches was indeed a challenge and a learning experience. I got my first discipleship training and experience in ministry at that church, which later became to be known as Pittsburgh Covenant Church. I also received the greatest blessing in my life in meeting and marrying Diane who has been a helpmeet and blessing to me for fifty years. But just as we were getting established as a newly married couple and house church ministers, the call of God came to move!
Through the Pittsburgh Charismatic Conferences and New Wine Magazine, several prominent teachers decided to combine forces and plant a church and discipleship center in Mobile Alabama. Pastor Joseph felt led to join them there and invited several of us to go with him. Thus started the next great cross country move, from Pittsburgh to Alabama. The Lord was with us and prospered us in Mobile. I found a job right away and we purchased a house that served us faithfully for 40 years. I learned a great deal from the ministry there and participated in several aspect of ministry including the worship team.
After Gulf Coast Covenant Church, later called Covenant Church of Mobile, was established for a few years, several people felt led to leave there and start new works elsewhere. Joseph had moved back to Pittsburgh and our next pastor, John Stanko, had taken a church in Orlando. We stayed in Mobile and helped Pastor Michael Adams plant Rehoboth Community Church. Our intention was to be a more multicultural congregation, reaching more of the black and hispanic communities in Mobile. Rehoboth never grew to be a large congregation, but was a blessing to the city until such time as Pastor Michael decided to retire and move back to Pittsburgh.
After that, we joined with Pastor David Richey in developing Gulf Coast Christian Center. GCCC was also more of an urban, multicultural congregation and we served there many years. It was there that I was ordained as a minister and teaching elder, and was part of the leadership team there until it was time for me to retire in 2017.
Once again, the Lord’s hand was apparent in guiding us to move to Texas. All of the events around my retirement, our purchase of Diane’s fathers house, planning to move, remodeling the house and finally moving lined up in remarkable fashion, and we arrived in Texas just the month before my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and needed our care and support. He died a few months later and we were in place to take care of Diane’s mother who had severe dementia. This time, we were not involved in a church plant, as we were blessed to join an existing and dynamic church, but were moved to a place at a critical time in Diane’s family to care for her folks and her Uncle John at just the right time.
Did we always know what we were doing when we set out to move across country? Absolutely not! Like Abram, we went forth to a land that we did not know, but always, we could see, in retrospect, the hand of God leading and guiding our path so that we were always in the proper place at the proper time. So Daniel and Brietta, take heart and trust God. His word is true and is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. When you follow God, wherever He leads you, He will not disappoint. Our testimony is that He is faithful, even when we don’t know what we are doing. As Pastor Joseph used to say, when you decide to follow God, you sign a contract on the bottom line and He fills in the details later. Where He leads you is usually unexpected, but is always a blessing, Moving in God is never easy, but the rewards are heavenly.
Uncle David and Aunt Diane
